No aerial surveillance as SIEV-X sank

28 June 2002 — 10:00am

The Defence Force did no aerial surveillance of waters south of Indonesia on the afternoon of October 19 last year when the ill-fated SIEV-X sank, drowning 353 asylum seekers.

The Defence Minister, Senator Hill, made the admission yesterday, after contradictory evidence by the defence force on its surveillance patterns on October 18, when intelligence reports told the navy SIEV-X had departed and on October 19, when it sunk.

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The head of the government's border protection Operation Relex, Admiral Geoffrey Smith, originally gave evidence to the children overboard inquiry that he knew nothing of SIEV-X until after it sunk. But the emergence of detailed and accurate intelligence reports that it departed Indonesia for Christmas Island on the 18th and could need rescue at sea due to its poor condition and overcrowding saw Admiral Smith retract his evidence. He then said aerial surveillance was focused on waters close to Christmas Island on October 19, and that he decided not to change it to search for SIEV-X.

The Defence Force last week refused to directly answer Herald questions on surveillance patterns, but yesterday, Senator Hill said that a P-3 Orion, which is fitted with sophisticated radar, conducted aerial surveillance in "the north west sector" on the mornings of the 18th and 19th of October.

He admitted there was no afternoon surveillance of the sector on October 19. Most evidence points to SIEV-X sinking about 50 nautical miles off Indonesia, 20 nautical miles inside international waters covered by aerial surveillance. It sank at 3pm on the afternoon of October 19.

Senator Hill said that "a further P-3 Orion surveillance mission was flown on the afternoon of 19th October to compensate for the unserviceability of HMAS Arunta's helicopter. The flight concentrated on the role usually played by the helicopter over the southern sector in response to naval tasking. It should be noted that poor weather prevented surveillance of the north west sector on this flight."

The Herald asked Senator Hill's spokeswoman why poor weather would stop surveillance. She said the Orion would not have covered the north west sector that "even if the weather had been good".

She could not say whether Operation Relex usually did afternoon surveillance. The stated purpose of Operation Relex is to spot and intercept boats as close as possible to Indonesian waters and send them back. A lack of afternoon surveillance would see boats get quite close to Christmas Island before being spotted. The distance between Indonesia and Christmas Island is about 210 nautical miles.

The Herald understands that the Defence Force assured the Prime Minister's people smuggling task force on October 18 that it was actively searching for SIEV-X, but defence last week refused to respond directly to this claim, saying instead that a defence representative did attend task force meetings and did sometimes say things at them.